Global warming has quickly become one of the most heated issues in America (~)). Rising temperatures and melting icebergs are indisputable evidence that the Earth is warming, but is this global heat wave a man-made crisis or just overblown hype?
Greenhouse gases emitted by humans for the past 150 years will continue to warm the planet for generations even if we stop fossil-fuel combustion today. Unfortunately, anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emission rates are still rising. Worldwide, emissions rose 70 percent between 1970 and 2005. Emissions will rise by a projected 25 to 90 percent by 2030. China
The planet has warmed about .74 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years, according to the IPCC. Eleven of the 12 years between 1995 and 2006 were the warmest since global temperature records were first kept in 1850. As a result, polar ice caps are collapsing at alarming rates. Since 1978, the Arctic ice has shrunk 2.7 percent per decade, according to the IPCC. A separate study that recently surveyed 30 glaciers from around the world observed them melting at record rates; an average rate of loss was 4.9 feet in 2006. That’s compared to an average loss of about a foot a year between 1980 and 1999.
There are four things in addition to natural-system restoration that will save the planet: urbanization, nuclear power, biotechnology, and geoengineering. It is time to reexamine many of the central ideas of the Green Movement, and that urban living uses resources more efficiently, that old-style farming is not sustainable given present climatic conditions, and that nuclear power has proven its effectiveness and safety in other countries.
The planet has warmed about .74 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years, according to the IPCC. Eleven of the 12 years between 1995 and 2006 were the warmest since global temperature records were first kept in 1850. As a result, polar ice caps are collapsing at alarming rates. Since 1978, the Arctic ice has shrunk 2.7 percent per decade, according to the IPCC. A separate study that recently surveyed 30 glaciers from around the world observed them melting at record rates; an average rate of loss was 4.9 feet in 2006. That’s compared to an average loss of about a foot a year between 1980 and 1999.
There are four things in addition to natural-system restoration that will save the planet: urbanization, nuclear power, biotechnology, and geoengineering. It is time to reexamine many of the central ideas of the Green Movement, and that urban living uses resources more efficiently, that old-style farming is not sustainable given present climatic conditions, and that nuclear power has proven its effectiveness and safety in other countries.
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